The process of making liangpi is quite complex, but that didn’t faze Li Yi.
In his previous life, he had spent a long time in the Guanzhong region, where he not only developed a taste for this dish but also studied it under a local master chef for a period.
However, when he took a look at the flour at home, he was stunned once again.
Making liangpi requires medium-gluten flour, but the flour at home was milled using traditional methods, containing not only flour but also a fair amount of wheat bran and impurities.
With these impurities present, not only was the flour’s efficiency low, but the resulting liangpi wouldn’t be chewy enough.
Without hesitation, Li Yi fetched the fine mesh strainer from home and scooped two large bowls of coarse flour from the jar to sift!
After filtering, the bran and larger particles were removed, leaving behind the all-purpose flour needed to make liangpi.
He then mixed the flour with water in a 2:1 ratio, kneaded it into a dough, and let it rest to develop gluten.
The key to making liangpi is “washing the dough”—that is, placing the rested dough in water to wash out the gluten and create a dough slurry.
This process is both time-consuming and labor-intensive, taking Li Yi a full half hour.
After completing these steps, steam the gluten for at least half an hour. Strain the batter, let it settle, and once it separates into layers, skim off the clear liquid from the top.
Next, Li Yi fetched a large metal tea tray from home, brushed it with oil, poured in the batter, and steamed it. The liangpi was ready in 5 minutes, while the gluten took 10 minutes.
Soon, the noodles were ready!
He cut the sheets into long strips, tore off a piece, and popped it into his mouth. It was smooth, chewy, and had a faint wheat aroma—in a word: delicious!
Over the next while, Li Yi used up all the remaining batter, making a total of 11 sheets of li pi.
Whether liangpi tastes good depends partly on how well the sheets are made and partly on how well the dipping sauce is prepared.
Liangpi itself has no flavor; it’s all about the texture. The other sensory and visual pleasures come from the seasonings and toppings.
Li Yi searched the kitchen for a long time but found only aged vinegar and salt; he couldn’t find anything else.
Relying solely on aged vinegar and salt clearly wouldn’t meet Li Yi’s standards, but luckily he spotted a bunch of dried chili peppers hanging on the wall. He immediately took them down, crushed them, and made a batch of chili oil.
The importance of chili oil to liangpi is beyond question. A good chili oil should be a vibrant, glossy red, with a rich, aromatic fragrance that fills the air when you take a close sniff.
When a bowl of liangpi is set before you, whether it’s visually appealing and whets the diner’s appetite depends entirely on the chili oil.
After preparing these, Li Yi went to the vegetable garden in the courtyard, picked a few seasonal fresh vegetables, washed them, and set them aside as side dishes.
Soon, a bowl of Guanzhong liangpi, rich in color, aroma, and flavor, was ready.
Eating liangpi on its own clearly wouldn’t do. After all, the famous Guan Zhong “San Qin Set Meal” includes not only liangpi but also roujiamo and Bingfeng soda.
Soda is a luxury item that’s impossible to come by, and there’s no meat for the roujiamo either—but we can make the bread!
In Li Yi’s hometown, the buns from Guanzhong are called “ping,” so Li Yi set to work kneading the dough and making flatbreads!
Compared to making liangpi, making pancakes is much simpler. In no time, a dozen or so palm-sized white pancakes were ready.
Just as Li Yi took the last white flatbread out of the pan, he heard the big yellow dog in the courtyard suddenly bark. Looking up, he saw that Third Sister and Tang Xue had returned.
It turned out that Li Na had taken Tang Xue for a walk in the mountains. She had given her best friend—who was two years younger than her—a good talking-to and offered plenty of comfort, repeatedly apologizing for her good-for-nothing younger brother. Finally, she managed to ease Tang Xue’s heartache.
Seeing that it was already noon and guessing her parents would be returning from the fields soon, she took Tang Xue home to prepare lunch for them.
But the moment she stepped through the courtyard gate, she sensed something was off. From a distance, a peculiar, mouth-watering aroma wafted toward her, making her swallow involuntarily.
“Xiao Xue, can you smell that? It smells so good!”
Tang Xue nodded instinctively and said, “It smells like the oil from fried pancakes, but there’s something else mixed in too!”
“Maybe Mom’s back. She must have been worried you’d be mistreated as her daughter-in-law, so she came home early to cook something special for you!” Li Na said.
At the sound of the words “daughter-in-law,” a flash of pain crossed Tang Xue’s eyes.
At eighteen or nineteen, she was in the prime of her youth, and she, too, had fantasized about one day donning a crimson wedding gown and marrying the man of her dreams.
But she had never, ever imagined that her prince charming would be someone like Li Yi.
At this thought, tears welled up in Tang Xue’s eyes.
But being stubborn by nature, she forced herself to hold them back, refusing to let them fall.
Li Na, standing nearby, noticed Tang Xue’s unusual demeanor. After silently cursing her good-for-nothing younger brother once more, she quickly changed the subject: “Xiao Xue, don’t overthink it. Let’s go inside and see what delicious treats Mom has made for us!”
However, when the two entered the room, they were surprised to find that their mother wasn’t there—it was Li Yi who was bustling around the stove!
When they saw the several large bowls of strange noodles and the plate of slightly golden-brown flatbreads on the bedside table, their eyes widened even more.
They both knew exactly what kind of person Li Yi was.
Although the Li family was of modest means, Li Yi was the late-in-life son of Li Shankui and his wife, and they doted on him immensely!
On top of that, he had three older sisters. Even though the family wasn’t well-off, Li Yi had never really suffered any hardships growing up.
Even during the collective farming era a few years back, Li Yi never had to work the fields to earn labor points, let alone do any housework.
From childhood to adulthood, Li Yi had never even washed a single pair of socks!
As for cooking, that used to be his eldest sister Li Mei’s job. After she got married, it was passed on to his second sister Li Lan, and after she got married, it’s now Li Na’s responsibility. All Li Yi has to do every day is come home on time for meals—that’s all.
“Xiao Yi… did you make all this?” Li Na asked in surprise.
Li Yi smiled and said, “Hehe, try my cooking!”
Li Na took Tang Xue by the hand, walked over to the bedside table, and took a closer look. Then she said, “Xiao Yi, what on earth is this? It looks pretty good, and it smells delicious too—I just wonder if it tastes good!”
Before Li Yi could answer, Tang Xue whispered, “This looks like the liangpi from back home!”
Li Yi immediately replied, “It is liangpi!”
Just then, the sound of a bell rang out from the courtyard, and they saw Li Shankui and his wife driving a mule cart into the yard.
Li Shankui skillfully unloaded the cart, watered the animals, and fed them hay, while Zhang Yuehong put away her hoe, went inside to wash her hands, and prepared to help with the cooking.
When she saw the liangpi and white flatbreads on the kang table, she immediately said to Li Na, “Na Na, why didn’t you take out that piece of cured pork and stir-fry it to help Xiao Xue regain her strength?”
Li Na hurriedly replied, “Mom, I’m not the one cooking today…”
“You silly girl, Xiaoxue hasn’t even married into our family yet, and you’ve already had someone else cook for her…”
Before her mother could finish, Li Na hurriedly explained, “It wasn’t Xiao Xue who made it either. To tell you the truth, your son made all of this!”
“Xiao Yi… how could that be…”
Just then, Li Shankui walked in after tending to the family’s red mule. Hearing Zhang Yuehong’s words, he immediately asked, “What are you talking about?”
“Husband, Nana says the meal on the table was made by Xiao Yi!”
Li Shankui glanced at the food on the table and froze for a moment, then frowned and said, “Did you buy this from somewhere? Don’t waste your money on this stuff in the future.”
Li Yi chuckled and said, “Oh my god, take a look at what this is before you speak!”
Li Yi continued, “This is called liangpi—a specialty from Qin Province. Don’t even mention that I’m as broke as a church mouse right now; even if I had the money, you can’t find this stuff for sale in our county!”
“Hmph!”
Li Shankui wore an expression that said, “I’d have to be a fool to believe you,” leaving Li Yi looking utterly embarrassed!
He knew his son inside out—he probably couldn’t even cook a piece of meat properly. The idea that he’d managed to whip up such a delicious dish was as likely as the sun rising in the west.
Fearing the two of them would start butting heads again, Zhang Yuehong hurried out to smooth things over. “All right, enough said. Just try the food and see if it’s good!”
Then, at Zhang Yuehong’s urging, all five members of the household sat down at the table. Each picked up a large enamel bowl and began to eat.
The fiery red chili fully awakened their taste buds, while the cool, smooth liangpi chased away the summer heat!
It was their first time trying liangpi, and whether it was Li Shankui and his wife or Li Na, they all nearly bit their tongues off—it was that delicious.
Even Tang Xue, who was from Qin Province, thought that Li Yi’s liangpi was more authentic than that of many seasoned chefs, and she polished off a whole large bowl.
“So you really made this yourself?” Li Shankui asked, looking skeptical.
“I made it. How does it taste?”
“Hmm, it’s okay!”
Seeing her father’s expression—clearly not what he was thinking—Li Na pursed her lips and said, “What do you mean ‘not bad’? This liangpi is absolutely delicious! With my brother’s skills, he could even make a living by setting up a stall in the county!”
Hearing this, a light bulb went off in Li Yi’s head; it seemed he had found the key to unlocking the door to wealth.